46-year-old father of three was found guilty last week of conspiring to intercept voicemails at the News of the World

Disgraced No 10 spin doctor Andy Coulson Andy Coulson arriving at the Old Bailey in London today being sentenced to 18 months in prison for plotting to hack phones while he was in charge of the News of the World

Disgraced No 10 spin doctor Andy Coulson has been jailed for 18 months today for plotting to hack phones while he editor of the News of the World.

The 46-year-old father of three was found guilty last week of conspiring to intercept voicemails at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid following an eight-month trial at the Old Bailey.

Coulson, from Charing, in Kent, was joined in the dock by three former colleagues and private detective Glenn Mulcaire who all admitted their part in hacking before the trial started last year.

Speaking before he sentenced the former journalist, the judge said: "Mr Coulson has to take the major shame for the blame of phone hacking at the NotW. He knew about it, he encouraged it when he should have stopped it."

The judge said Coulson clearly thought it was necessary to use phone hacking to maintain the newspaper's "competitive edge".

And he said the delay in the News of the World telling police about the Milly Dowler voicemail in 2002 showed the motivation was to "take credit for finding her" and sell the maximum number of newspapers.

Following his conviction, David Cameron issued a ­grovelling apology for hiring Coulson after the former News of the World editor was convicted of phone hacking.

The PM was accused of allowing a criminal into the corridors of power by stubbornly ignoring repeated ­warnings about the conduct of the ­journalist – who faces up to two years in jail.

And he faced a further grilling over how disgraced Coulson slipped through the normally stringent vetting procedure for staff at No10 to land a plum job at the heart of government.

Chancellor George Osborne also came under fire for his role in recruiting the Tory press chief in 2007 shortly after his resignation from the News of the World.

Mr Cameron spoke after close friends Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie were cleared of all phone hacking charges, along with three other former News International colleagues.

The grim-faced PM said: “I take full responsibility for employing Andy Coulson. I did so on the basis of undertakings I was given by him about phone hacking and those turn out not to be the case.

“I always said that if they turned out to be wrong, I would make a full and frank apology and I do that today. I’m extremely sorry that I employed him. It was the wrong decision.”

But Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of employing Coulson in a bid to cosy up to News International boss Rupert Murdoch.